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Pólya Lectureship

George Pólya embodied the high quality of exposition which the Mathematical Association of America seeks to encourage. To further this goal, the Board of Governors of the Association established the George Pólya Lectureship. This Lectureship will be held by an individual representing the high expository standards set by George Pólya. A new Pólya Lecturer will be appointed every year, with a term of two academic years. The first year of the term overlaps the term of the previous Pólya Lecturer and the second year overlaps the term of the next Pólya Lecturer.

Each Section is eligible to have a Pólya Lecturer speak at one of its meetings once every five academic years on a rotating basis, with all travel expenses borne by the Association. Thus, if a Section is eligible during the 2019-2020 academic year, for example, they must host the Lecturer during either the Fall 2019 or Spring 2020.

Each year, the Pólya lecturers will be notified as to which sections are eligible for a visit during that year. Sections should contact the lecturer directly to coordinate a visit.

Section Eligibility for the Pólya Lectureship:

2018-2019

EPaDel
Iowa
Metro New York
North Central
Pacific Northwest
Southwestern

EPaDel
Iowa
Metro New York
North Central
Pacific Northwest
Southwestern

It is customary for the section to waive any registration, banquet and social fees for the lecturer. The Pólya Lecturer will pay his/her own travel expenses and will be reimbursed by the Association. Should, by accident, a section invite two Pólya speakers, it will be asked to reimburse the Association for the more expensive trip.

Each section is asked to be a thoughtful host. In the crush of meeting details and the distribution of duties amongst section officers and local arrangements faculty, it is sometimes easy for responsibilities to fall through the cracks. Please be sure to consider your visitors' arrangements for travel, lodging, meals, local transportation and registration. In the days of "Saturday night stay overs", it is especially cordial that the section considers Saturday evening dining arrangements. At least give visiting speakers options ("a ride would be great" or "I'll catch a cab") for airport pickups, get-togethers at meals, etc. Be sure to communicate fully about the schedule of events at your meeting.

2019 - 2020 Pólya Lecturers

Charles Hadlock is a Professor of Mathematical Sciences and the Trustee Professor of Technology, Policy, and Decision Making at Bentley University where he previously served as Dean and Chair of both the Departments of Mathematical Sciences and of Finance. He has also taught at Amherst, Bowdoin College, the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, and MIT (in the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department). His mathematical career began with a dogged but unsuccessful attempt to disprove his high school geometry teacher’s doctrinal assertion that one could not even trisect a 60-degree angle with compass and straightedge. Some years later, this led to his widely read Carus Monograph, Field Theory and Its Classical Problems, which received the first Beckenbach Award of the Mathematical Association of America and is still in print after 40 years. He spent his mid-career at the consulting firm of Arthur D. Little where he led a risk and environmental practice that included early investigations for EPA and other clients into power plant safety, nuclear and hazardous waste disposal, and related topics. He is sometimes called a “blue collar” mathematician for his penchant for visiting plants and field sites around the world to understand their risks. His book Mathematical Modeling in the Environment draws from this experience. Most recently, he and his students have been studying the common dynamics of abrupt and often unexpected change across many fields, discussed in his book Six Sources of Collapse. Students report that his classes are memorable: after all how many undergraduate math classes go slogging through muddy Superfund sites or highly secure nuclear plants, or involve live and real auctions that keep Venmo quite busy?

Kristin Lauter is a Principal Researcher and Research Manager for the Cryptography group at Microsoft Research. Her research focuses on post-quantum cryptography, algorithmic number theory, elliptic curve, pairing-based, and lattice-based cryptography, homomorphic encryption, and cloud security and privacy, including privacy for healthcare. Her work has been featured in the press in articles in Science, Nature, American Scientist, and PNAS. She has published over 75 research articles and 5 books, her work appearing in venues ranging from the American Journal of Mathematics to the Journal of Biomedical Informatics and the Proceedings of CRYPTO and EUROCRYPT. Lauter has served the mathematical community as President of the Association for Women in Mathematics, and on the Council of the American Mathematical Society. She is a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society and the Association for Women in Mathematics. She was a co-founder of the Women In Numbers Network, a research collaboration community for women in number theory, and she serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for BIRS, the Banff International Research Station. Lauter is also an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Washington. In 2008, Lauter, together with her coauthors, was awarded the Selfridge Prize in Computational Number Theory. She loves to engage audience with accessible lectures highlighting the importance of mathematics in society.

2018 - 2019 Pólya Lecturers

Carlos Castillo-Chavez is a mathematical epidemiologist and a Regents Professor of Mathematical Biology at Arizona State University. He has won awards by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Mentor Award and Fellow (2007),the Stanislaw M. Ulam Distinguished Scholar by the Center for Nonlinear Studies at Los Alamos National Laboratory (2003), the Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) Distinguished Scientist Award (2001), the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (1997), and the Presidential Faculty Fellowship Award from the National Science Foundation and the Office of the President of the United States (1992–1997). Carlos served from 2010-2015 on President Barak Obama’s national medal of science committee and is a fellow of SIAM, AMS and AAAS Carlos is the executive director of the Mathematical and Theoretical Biology Institute and the Institute for Strengthening the Understanding of Mathematics and Science as well as the founding director of the Mathematical, Computational and Modeling Sciences Center at ASU. He previously taught at Cornell for 18 years.

Kristin Lauter is a Principal Researcher and Research Manager for the Cryptography group at Microsoft Research. Her research focuses on post-quantum cryptography, algorithmic number theory, elliptic curve, pairing-based, and lattice-based cryptography, homomorphic encryption, and cloud security and privacy, including privacy for healthcare. Her work has been featured in the press in articles in Science, Nature, American Scientist, and PNAS. She has published over 75 research articles and 5 books, her work appearing in venues ranging from the American Journal of Mathematics to the Journal of Biomedical Informatics and the Proceedings of CRYPTO and EUROCRYPT. Lauter has served the mathematical community as President of the Association for Women in Mathematics, and on the Council of the American Mathematical Society. She is a Fellow of the American Mathematical Society and the Association for Women in Mathematics. She was a co-founder of the Women In Numbers Network, a research collaboration community for women in number theory, and she serves on the Scientific Advisory Board for BIRS, the Banff International Research Station. Lauter is also an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Washington. In 2008, Lauter, together with her coauthors, was awarded the Selfridge Prize in Computational Number Theory. She loves to engage audience with accessible lectures highlighting the importance of mathematics in society.